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McGill, News

AUS Legislative Council votes to reallocate Journal and Special Projects Fund applications

by Jacqueline Yao on

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The Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) held its second-to-last Legislative Council of the 2017-18 academic year on March 28, during which councillors deliberated ways to manage the miscalculated Journal Fund and Special Projects Fund. They also voted on Councillor of the Year, the results of which will be announced at the AUS Awards on April 9. Finally, Council also discussed how AUS will take a larger role in planning next year’s Grad Fair, and passed a motion to add a Vice-President (VP) HelpDesk position to the Computer Science Undergraduate Society (CSUS).

 

Reallocation of the Journal Fund and Special Projects Fund

Due to miscommunications between AUS VP Finance Noah Lew and the AUS Financial Management Committee (FMC), the FMC miscalculated the amount of funds available for clubs at their March 21 meeting. According to Arts Representative Kevin Zhou, the FMC mistakenly combined the Supplementary Fund, the Journal Fund, and the Special Projects Fund, and in doing so put $4,000 of the Supplementary Fund’s money into the other two funds.

“FMC was told by the VP Finance that the three discretionary funds are merging,” Zhou said. “However, after the last FMC meeting, [the committee realized that] the funds are not merging and that it is 20 per cent overfunding [for Journal and Special Projects Funds] but is underspending for departmental associations’ Supplementary Fund.”

Zhou further explained that many journals have already incurred expenses for upcoming launches and will face a budget deficit if AUS were to reallocate funds. In response, Council voted unanimously in favour of Zhou’s motion to move several journal and special projects applications, including those from the Montreal World Health Organization Simulation (MonWHO) and the Department of English Student Association (DESA), to the Supplementary Fund.

 

Suggestion to add new category to Teaching Awards

On March 26, the AUS Awards Selection Committee chose the winners of the 2017-18 Teaching Awards: Course Lecturer Kazue Takamura, Teaching Assistant David Collins, and Arts Advisor Brandy Jugandi. In response to some faculty members’ supposed dissatisfaction with the winners, DESA VP External Thomas MacDonald and VP Academic Madeline Wilson agreed that future Teaching Awards should include a separate category for course lecturers.

“I haven’t considered the idea since there were other course lecturers nominated,” Wilson said. “I would definitely recommend [next year’s AUS Awards Selection Committee] to reconsider that because I’m sorry to hear that there are many faculty members who are upset about the nominations.”

 

AUS to play larger role in next Grad Fair

In the past, the AUS has partnered with the McGill Career Planning Service (CaPS) to jointly plan the AUS Grad Fair, an annual event for students to meet representatives from graduate programs. At the Council meeting, VP External Alice Yue announced that AUS will take a larger organizational role in future Grad Fairs, with the next one planned for Nov. 7, 2018. Yue also proposed to CaPS that AUS receive 85 per cent of the Fair’s revenue, instead of CaPS’ suggested 60 per cent, which comes from graduate programs’ registration free. Moving forward, she is looking for ways to lower the Grad Fair planning cost from $5,000 to $2,000. This increase is largely the result of the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Building closure, as AUS has previously benefited from 10 hours of free booking per week through SSMU.

“AUS will communicate with universities and take care of registration and payments,” Yue said. “[Holding the Grad Fair at New Residence] will make shipping from McGill more complicated, so we’re going to collaborate with SUS and EUS for advice because they hold Tech Fair at New Residence every year.”

 

Motion to Approve Amended CSUS Constitution passes

Council voted unanimously to give HelpDesk—a tutoring service for computer science students—a representative Vice-President position on CSUS Council. Nicholas Lee, VP Arts of CSUS, spoke to the service’s value, explaining that a council position would help the HelpDesk appoint introductory computer science course tutors who have helped many students this year. Meanwhile, it also voted to change quorum for CSUS Executive Council from four members to 50 per cent of the council, as council meetings have had trouble reaching quorum in the past.

The last AUS Legislative Council will be on April 11.

Martlets, Men's Varsity, Sports

A behind-the-scenes look at coaching through the offseason

by Gabe Nisker on

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After building toward a championship victory for months at a time, the end of the season leaves players and coaches alike in a trance—the championship hangover. Coming off his team’s fourth straight CCBA championship, Redmen baseball Head Coach Jason Starr confirmed this predicament to The McGill Tribune.

“Two weeks,” Starr said. “It takes me two weeks to sit there and say I need a two-week break from the season, and then we’ve got to get back on the train.”

And what a train it is. From scheduling games and practices to recruiting, plenty of offseason phone calls and meetings go into making a season run as well as it does. It’s a never-ending cycle: By the time the previous season ends, preparations for the next one have already begun. McGill’s coaches, who often juggle full-time work in addition to their McGill Athletics commitments, are always locked in, even if their team is not out there competing. While regular season matchups and championship finishes catch public attention, much of the important work happens in the offseason, including scouting, preparing training plans, and game strategy.

For Martlet basketball Head Coach Ryan Thorne, the final buzzer of a season-ending tournament loss at Nationals in Regina on March 11 didn’t signal the true conclusion of the 2017-18 campaign. There were a few things to take care of first, starting with the final team dinner after the game. Next, their flight home to Montreal got delayed, and the team was stuck in Toronto for a few extra hours. Nine days later, Thorne sat down with the Tribune, just as the book on the past season was finally coming to a close.

“From that last game, we’ll give them a week where we limit that contact, let [the players] get back into everything they need to do academically without us bothering them,” Thorne said. “And then we’ll have our exit meetings [the following week].”

After exit interviews wrap up, the Martlets flex other muscles until exams end on May 1. For Thorne, it’s time to accomplish the little, inconspicuous tasks that make the season run.

“We don’t just show up [on the court] and say, ‘Let’s go roll a ball out there,’” Thorne said. “There’s a plan that goes into place. We do all that planning between now and May.”

Just over a week after his team’s final game, Thorne was busy fielding calls to plan out the next season’s schedule. His main concern was creating a balance between his players’ academic obligations and a demanding basketball schedule.

“What we try to do is not overload [the players],” Thorne said. “This is the time where we look at […] schedules. Where can we travel? When can we travel, just based on all of these [factors]? So, that’s what we figure out now.”

For the dominant Martlet basketball squad, who won their seventh consecutive conference title in March, preseason exhibition challenges from teams south of the border keep the group in top form for when league play begins. The McGill basketball teams generally play against NCAA schools in early August, which means they require a waiver from U Sports to allow freshmen to compete. Under U Sports regulations, incoming players cannot participate in formal team drills until Aug 15.

Throughout the offseason, Thorne remains in close contact with his assistant coaches; however, he is the only full-time employee of his staff.

“There are a lot of teams across the country that have full-time assistant coaches,” Thorne said. “We’re not fortunate enough to have one right now. We just try to script it so that everyone gets involved but without overloading my assistants, either.”

In the summer, availability is a matching game between players, coaches, and gym times. Coordinating all of the moving pieces can be a significant hurdle for McGill’s teams. During May and June, players and gyms are free during the day, but Thorne’s assistant coaches are working at their day jobs. In July, summer camps occupy the gyms, so space is only available at night. That’s when everyone gets together for workouts.

Even though he works full-time as Martlet head coach, Thorne balances that job with a number of other roles: He helps select McGill Athletics award recipients, works on the coaching staff for the Canadian Women’s U19 basketball team, and serves as the president of the Women’s Basketball Coaching Association for Canada.

Other McGill sports teams are even less fortunate than the basketball team, as they rely fully on an all-volunteer staff. McGill Redmen lacrosse Head Coach Tim Murdoch has volunteered his time for the last 15 seasons, all while leading his own consulting firm outside McGill. The bulk of his coaching commitment comes during the team’s August-November season. Murdoch has the team elect captains at the end of the fall season for the following year, which allows him to step back as his team prepares for exams and trains under peer leadership.

“I don’t see the guys much [from November to April],” Murdoch said. “I don’t want them to get sick of the sport, but we lean on our captains in the offseason to play the leadership role in terms of training and conditioning.”

With his captains working hard to lead offseason drills, Murdoch can devote his time to his day job and tasks such as recruiting.

In December, he attended the Oceanside Hustle, a major recruiting event on the lacrosse circuit in Oceanside, California. The tournament’s structure allowed him to watch hundreds of players from 120 competitive high school and club teams across the United States. Before spectating the event, Murdoch identified several critical recruiting targets, and during the action, found even more potential Redmen. Such events are vital for constructing the team’s roster and creating positive momentum for recruiting players in the future.

“[After taking part in these recruiting opportunities,] we suddenly have two Californians on the roster, and all of a sudden, kids from California will notice [McGill’s program],” Murdoch said.

As with coaching, recruiting is a year-round gig. Coaches work hard to solidify their rosters for not only the immediate season, but for many years to come.

“There’s no rest for [recruiting],” Thorne said. “We’ll have some kids on the list who aren’t [eligible] for 2018 but are for 2019.”

Furthermore, recruiting is not a one-man show. It takes an effective plan and good communication to get the job done.

Starr and his associate head coach and recruiting coordinator Casey Auerbach travel together to the U.S. for recruiting showcases. Once they’ve identified potential recruits, Auerbach will directly contact them as the duo aims to get to know the student behind the baseball player.

“We’ll organize day trips and night trips for the guys who will stay with our players to determine [if they’re] a good fit for the program,” Starr said. “[We ask] not only are they good baseball players, but are they good fits? Throughout the years, we’ve learned that fit is more important than the ballplayer [himself.]”

The final piece of the puzzle comes at the very beginning of McGill’s Fall semester. As the offseason winds down, many McGill teams hold open tryouts weeks before the season begins.

“Because of the reputation of McGill, there might be a kid who we didn’t know about, who didn’t know that McGill had a basketball team but was coming here just for academics,” Thorne said. “And now she’s a talent and she loves basketball.”

After a long summer of training, recruiting, and planning, McGill’s coaches move into the fall eager to see their hard work pay off. The offseason is a critical component of McGill teams’ success, as it allows athletes, coaches, and staff the time needed to reset and recover from the previous year. Then, once the next season starts, it’s full steam ahead for McGill’s coaches.

“In that [March-May period] also, there’s some vacation time,” Thorne said. “[But] once you get going, you get going.”

Science & Technology

Combatting reluctance: Why is climate action so hard?

by Gwenyth Wren on

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On March 22, Philip Kitcher, a professor of philosophy at Columbia University, discussed the difficulties of implementing climate change policy during the 2018 Mossman lecture. The lecture series, named after McGill alumnus and chemist Donald Mossman, seeks to raise awareness about scientific thought that is pertinent to solving the issues currently facing society.

According to Kitcher, deciding the appropriate course of climate action requires weighing the needs of the present against those of both developing nations and future generations. By providing philosophical insight to the debate, Kitcher broke down why it is so difficult to motivate climate action.

Over 97 per cent of the world’s climate scientists agree that climate change is a result of human activities. Despite the overwhelming amount of supportive data, climate change deniers are far from few in number. When denial is so prevalent, even among world leaders, it is difficult to move forward.

The problem extends beyond the deniers. While many people believe climate change is real, few are aware of the rate at which change is occurring. According to NASA, humankind is facing the possibility of a global temperature rise between two and six degrees Celsius in the next century. This increase will cause more extreme episodic weather events such as wildfires, droughts, floods, storms, and heat waves, events that will permeate all aspects of life. Droughts, for example, can lead to water wars, and floods can spread infectious disease.

Another barrier to action is the debate on what issues we should prioritize. Many believe that governments should be focusing their efforts on remedying suffering and poverty in the present, and should let the future take care of itself.

“It would be wrong to ask any single generation to sacrifice everything to aid another,” Kitcher said.  “If we don’t act on climate change [now], the life of future generations will be hard. [Similarly, however,] if we don’t act to help people now, their [lives] will continue to be very hard.”

The solution, Kitcher said, is dividing our resources. Kitcher proposed that we must ensure a habitable world for future generations while alleviating the plight of the poor in today’s society.

Many scientists and researchers worldwide are working on different ways to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Kitcher, applauding their efforts, suggested that in order to discover the best method, countries should explore new and varied approaches to decreasing their emissions.

Coming up with a solution is now more important than ever, as the atmosphere can only handle a certain amount of GHGs. The United States has already used up close to a third of the quota despite only having about four per cent of the world’s population.

Kitcher explained that understanding the economic and political changes needed to take action is challenging, as better communication between nations is necessary.

“If too many nations refuse to cooperate, then our planet will be doomed,” Kitcher said. “We must no longer adhere to nationalist politics or unrestrained capitalism.”

Ultimately, climate action is a collaborative effort. Nations that have profited from industrialization need to step up and bear the burden of not only mitigating their own emissions, but those of developing nations as well.

“[I’m giving this lecture] in [the] spirit of looking at problems and forging an alliance to destroy the collective enemy we’ve created for ourselves, atmospheric carbon,” Kitcher said. “[Our] best hope is to overcome our differences and confront our [common] enemy. If we don’t, the beautiful world [that] we live in will give way to a world that is far nastier, a world that our grandchildren’s grandchildren will find it hard to survive in.”

Arts & Entertainment, Film and TV

Tomb Raider is a surprisingly not terrible video game movie

by Patrick Beacham on

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Following a 15-year absence from the big screen, and five years after the video game reboots by Edios Interactive and, later, Square Enix, Lara Croft has returned to the big screen in Tomb Raider’s latest iteration. Usually, one would come to expect little from a video game movies, especially after the first stabs at a Tomb Raider adaptation, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life (2003), failed to establish a believable character. However, much like Square’s games, this film avoids expected pitfalls, and Alicia Vikander’s Croft leads a triumphant return for the series.

Croft’s story is familiar in this adaptation of the beloved game series: She ventures to a mysterious island to investigate the whereabouts of her father, who went missing in the Pacific Ocean while searching for a mysterious artifact seven years prior. While not the most novel storyline for a Tomb Raider-based project, the film incorporates the best elements of past installments, combining strong plot points from the first movies with the revamped character development of the recent games. Croft’s father (Dominic West) and a rival archaeologist trying to unleash the artifact, Mathias Vogel (Walton Goggins), serve as incredible foils to one another when it comes to their respective values. One is willing to forsake the world for his family, and the other, his family for the world. Between the two stands Lara Croft, who must make impossible decisions as the two men are perched like an angel and devil on opposite shoulders.

The new crew behind the camera, veterans of action films like Kingsman (2014) and the recent James Bond series, knew they had to do better than the Angelina Jolie movies at building a believable Lara Croft. Enter Alicia Vikander, an Oscar-winning actress known in action-movie circles for her ability to move from watery-eyed, convincing vulnerability in one moment to calculated composure in the next. This versatility defines Tomb Raider from the first act. Croft seems tough, but her personal strife affects her deeply. As that internal conflict escalates on the island, Vikander shows audiences just how much it threatens to tear Lara in half, and her gripping showdowns with both foes are nothing short of heart pounding.

Everything about the production places the talent, especially Vikander, at the centerfold. Dialogue is shot and cut in classical fashion. Gunshots punctuate the trauma for a young Lara Croft still new to life-and-death decisions. Close-ups linger to show how each situation challenges each character’s resolve. Cinematographer George Richmond, who has worked with close-up maestro Emmanuel Lubezki on Children of Men (2006), strives to put the audience face-to-face with these characters in a way that helps us understand what words can’t explain, and the camera-work capitalizes on the film’s star power with smart framing.

By no means is the new Tomb Raider an award-winner, but the same can be said of Square Enix’s games, and that hasn’t torn down Hitman or Just Cause or even Lara Croft’s own recent spate of new game titles. Despite the little things holding the blockbuster back from the top tier, Tomb Raider is still a smart, standout action film that gives casual moviegoers and series fans alike a nice breath of fresh air.

McGill, News

McGill bans single-use bottled water from all campus food locations

by helen wu on

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McGill students have advocated for banning single-use water bottles on campus since 2010 and, on March 22, the university finally met their demands. McGill announced that it will begin phasing out the sale of single-use plastic water bottles from all food locations and vending machines on campus, with the goal of completely removing them by May 2019.

The university will also install additional water fountains across campus. This initiative was the result of consultations between the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU), the Post Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS), the MacDonald Campus Students’ Society (MCSS), and student stakeholders in November 2017.

Shortly after the ban was announced, the SSMU Sustainability commissioners passed a new Sustainability Policy on March 29 to outline how it will help student clubs and organizations obtain alternative sources of drinking water for their events. According to Caroline Lou, SSMU Sustainability commissioner, this policy mandates it to distribute information on plastic bottles to students, promote the use of tap water, and provide services related to waste reduction.

“We can’t visit every club’s events and meetings to monitor their internal practices, but we’re hoping to eliminate plastic water bottle use through education and awareness,” Lou said.

According to Francois Miller, sustainability director at the McGill Office of Sustainability (MOOS), roughly 85,000 plastic water bottles are sold on campus each year—not including bottles distributed by student clubs or associations. He predicts that the ban will help fulfill McGill’s Vision 2020 Climate and Sustainability Action Plan by lowering the university’s carbon footprint significantly, as each bottle is manufactured and transported using fossil fuels. Moreover, plastic water bottles take at least 450 years to degrade.

Dr. Joe Schwarcz, director of McGill’s Office for Science and Society, believes that the university has taken an environmentally responsible step as he explained the process of manufacturing bottled water.

“[The ban] is absolutely not for good publicity,” Schwarcz said. “The university does not benefit from it, society does. Transporting water is an expensive business because [water] is heavy. We also need to take into account the manufacturing of the bottle, which is an energy-intensive industry. Also, depending on where the water is taken from, you are disrupting the aquifers. There have been cases where you see that surfacers have collapsed due to water being sucked out from underneath.”

McGill is far from the first Canadian school to ban the sale of single-use water bottles on its campus. The University of Winnipeg was the first to ban plastic bottles from its campus in 2009. The University of Toronto followed in its footsteps in 2011, as did Concordia University in 2012.

While Miller acknowledges that McGill’s ban is late in comparison, he noted that there have been smaller initiatives to reduce the use of plastic bottles at specific locations on campus, such as  SSMU’s ban on water bottle sales in the University Centre in 2009.

Although there are many environmental benefits to banning single-use water bottles, studies have shown that there are risks to this policy move. At the University of Vermont, for example, banning water bottles in 2013 led to an increase in sales of sodas and sweetened beverages.

Yet Miller is confident that McGill has taken the steps necessary to ensure that this doesn’t happen. He cited schools like Washington University in St. Louis, where banning single-use plastic water bottles instead lead to lower soda sales.

“[The potential increase in soft-drink sales] was a concern we kept in mind throughout our planning phase,” Miller said. “For this reason, we are supporting the ban by installing or upgrading over 25 new fountains on campus, as well as [selling] cheaper refillable bottles available throughout campus.”

A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Caroline Lou is the SSMU Environment Committee chair; in fact, she is the SSMU Sustainability commissioner. In addition, the previous version stated that the SSMU Environment Committee passed a new Sustainability Policy when in fact the Sustainability commissioners passed the policy. The Tribune regrets these errors.

 

Features

With Time, a Task Force

by Kendall McGowan on

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Nearly 200 years ago, James McGill, a fur trader and one of the most prominent slave owners in Quebec’s history, founded McGill University on land traditionally held by Indigenous peoples. On that land, enslaved Indigenous and Black labourers built many of the edifices which still stand on campus, including the Arts building. To this day, the university has not ceded the land that it stands on and during the 2015-2016 academic year, Indigenous students received just 46 of the 9,022 degrees granted by McGill. Last year, a task force created by McGill’s Provost Christopher Manfredi proposed 52 calls to action in order to address this history and the ways in which it continues to harm students on campus.

 

Part I: History

 

In 1859, McGill president and leading Canadian geologist Sir John William Dawson was called to a construction site at the corner of Metcalfe Street and De Maisonneuve Boulevard West, a block away from where McGill’s Bronfman Building stands today. Construction workers uncovered long-buried artifacts indicating the former presence of an Iroquois village: Fire pits, the infrastructure of longhouses, human skeletons, pottery, stone implements, and more. Some of these items are now visible at the McCord Museum.

 

Dawson spent a few months examining the evidence and eventually suggested that the site—which came to be known as the Dawson Site—represents the remains of the village of Hochelaga, populated by the St. Lawrence Iroquoians. In 1535, Jacques Cartier was the first European to discover Hochelaga when he reached the island that is today known as Montreal, after the French King Francis I tasked him with exploring what became New France. As he described it in his writings, Hochelaga was a large village of approximately 3,000 people living in 50 longhouses in a fortified enclosure surrounded by cornfields at the base of a mountain which he called Mount Royal. Scholars still dispute the exact location of Hochelaga, but because of Cartier’s description, most contemporary literature places it in the vicinity of McGill Downtown campus. Regardless, the village disappeared shortly after Cartier’s first visit; it was already gone by the time of his second, and no subsequent explorers were able to find it.

Student Life

Krispy Kremes challenge samosas as McGill’s new go-to snack

by Leanne Young on

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McGill students are known for their love of samosas. The crunchy snack is central to the university’s culture. However, Krispy Kreme doughnut sales are growing in popularity day by day, making their way up the McGill food hierarchy to threaten the dominance of samosas at McGill.

While it is now quite common to find a Krispy Kreme sale when walking through campus, the sales only started recently—the first one this year was held on Sep. 13, 2017 in the McConnell Engineering Building by McGill’s Tashan Dance Company.

“We chose [to sell] Krispy Kremes because it was something different,” Misra Isabel Trana, U1 Arts and VP communications of Tashan Dance Company said. “Everyone sells samosas but not everybody enjoys them, so Krispy Kreme was a nice alternative.”

Although rising in popularity, hosting a Krispy Kreme sale takes a lot more effort than one might expect. For Mary Thieffry, U2 Arts and VP Fundraising for McGill Women in Leadership, getting the doughnuts was the most difficult part of the process. Unlike Pushap, the primary samosa supplier for McGill sales, Krispy Kreme does not deliver directly to campus.

“The closest Krispy Kreme store is almost an hour away from Downtown by public transit,” Thieffry said. “I had to wake up extremely early to go get them and then carry a bunch of boxes in the metro to bring them back to campus.”

Yet, even though transporting the doughnuts was time-consuming, Thieffry admitted that it made up for the labour that goes into holding traditional bake sales.

“Our sale was quite successful, we made as much as a very good samosa sale would make,” Thieffry said, “If you’re looking to sell something sweet, what’s nice about Krispy Kremes is that you and your team don’t have to spend a night baking. Also, Krispy Kreme sales are always popular and sell out fast which means that you can make just as much of a profit as you would during a bake sale in much less time.”

Although many students are willingly hopping on the Krispy Kreme bandwagon, some student groups have sold the doughnuts instead of samosas purely out of necessity. Global Brigades, a student-run club at McGill, ran their first-ever Krispy Kreme sale in the McConnell Engineering Building on March 23. Although they were initially hoping to run their usual samosa sale, the competition for tabling spots left them no choice but to try selling the new food option.  

“We were only able to sell using the sweet table,” Vivian Luong, Global Brigades member said. “We usually sell samosas but you can only sell samosas at the designated samosas-selling table. If the table is already booked by another club then no other club can sell samosas in that area at that time.”

Despite the rising prominence of doughnuts, competition to get a samosa table remains high—an indication that the classic meal still holds a strong seat in the campus snack world. For Olivia Lockbaum, member of the McGill Martlets Field Hockey team, samosas will always remain her favourite go-to tabling option.

“As an athlete, samosas make both a great pregame and post practice snack,” Lockbaum said.“Three samosas can make a lunch, so many students enjoy the typical one-for-one dollar or three-for-two dollar samosa deal, whereas doughnuts are not as fulfilling and cannot really be treated as a lunch.”

Ultimately, the future of the most popular tabling food on campus remains unclear. While samosas are—and always have been—a classic go-to, the excitement of a new option has been enticing for many sellers and hungry students alike.

“Holding a Krispy Kreme sale was definitely better [than a samosa sale],” Trana said. “We were able to sell [the doughnuts] individually and in boxes of dozens. They sold out super fast because everyone loves doughnuts to be honest.”

Out on the Town, Student Life

The Best of Montreal’s vintage stores

by Abeer Almahdi on

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For students and local trendsetters alike, thrift shopping is possibly the best way to find one-of-a-kind vintage items while sticking to a budget. Luckily for Montrealers, the city offers a plethora of local vintage, consignment, and thrift stores. To help students navigate the map of businesses spread across the city, The McGill Tribune found the best Mile End thrift stores based on their budget and style.

Local 23
23 Bernard Street West

Located on the corner of Bernard Street West and St-Laurent Boulevard , Local 23 offers a dynamic space with an endless array of secondhand pieces. Although the store is quite small, its managers have fit an enormous quantity of pieces into that space. Local 23 specializes in ‘90’s vintage clothing, shoes, boots, and accessories. Their styles are ever-changing, with new pieces coming in every week from approximately 25 regular consigners. Most clothing items are priced from 20 to 40 dollars per piece, while accessories sell for slightly less. Unlike many thrift stores, Local 23 has a plus-size jeans rack, which makes it much more accessible to bodies of many shapes and sizes.

Empire Exchange
51 Bernard Street West

As Local 23’s sister consignment store, Empire Exchange is located right across the street, on the corner of Clark and Bernard Street West. Empire Exchange is Montreal’s first and only buy-sell-trade store, meaning that customers can sell their own articles of clothing for an immediate portion of the appraised value or store credit valid at multiple locations. The store specializes in in-season modern and vintage clothing, shoes, and accessories.

Citizen Vintage
5330 St-Laurent Blvd

Focused on repurposing and recycling used clothing, Citizen Vintage offers an alternative to the rise of fast fashion through its environmentally-conscious mandate of recycling and upcycling secondhand pieces. In addition to selling vintage and repurposed pieces, mostly from the ‘60s and ‘70s, the store sells an array of handmade clothing articles from a variety of local designers, promoting the Montreal art scene. Although it is on the pricey side, Citizen Vintage is a great option for sustainable shoppers, and sells sizes up to 16, making it more accessible than many other shops.

Kay Vintage
157 Bernard Street West

With the greatest variety of item prices of all the shops on this list, Kay Vintage offers shoppers a true treasure-hunting experience. Although the space is quite small, the store is stocked from floor to ceiling with everything from five-dollar accessories to 50-dollar dresses and leather jackets. The store’s items are sectioned by price, making it easy and efficient to stick to your budget when shopping there. Its inventory includes hats, dresses, and leather wallets, belts, boots, and shoes. The owner is not only extremely friendly, but is also open to negotiating prices, making this store accessible to even the most frugal thrifter.

Annex Vintage
56 Saint Viateur Street West

Annex Vintage is a hub for vintage clothing-lovers and independent designers alike, showcasing hundreds of pieces from national artists. This shop sells more than just clothes. With jewellery, stationary, apothecary products, pins, patches, artist T-shirts, socks, and many other gift items on display, there is something for everyone. While on the pricier side—with some items selling for 60 dollars—Annex Vintage has a dynamic collection of high quality products that you won’t find elsewhere.

News, SSMU

SSMU Legislative Council votes in favour of student strike for free education

by Julia Kafato on

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At its meeting on March 29, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Legislative Council passed the Motion to Organize the Fight for Free Education and the Cancellation of Student Debt. Council also passed the Motion Regarding the Adoption of a Sustainability Policy and the Motion to Amend the Internal Regulations to Improve Accessibility, Impartiality, and Stability of the Board of Directors (BoD)

 

Council votes to support free tuition and debt cancellation

McGill’s Chapter of Socialist Fightback (SF)—a group advocating for a societal transition to socialism—has campaigned to pass the motion at both the General Assembly (GA) and at Council since March 16. Vishwaa Ramakrishnan, U0 Arts, a member of SF, presented the motion, which councillors discussed in an extensive question period.

SSMU Vice-President (VP) Connor Spencer explained that both the Quebec Student Union (QSU) and the Association for the Voice of Education in Quebec (AVEQ) would have major roles in lobbying the provincial government for the right of students in Quebec to strike. Councillors raised concerns about the legality of a student strike in Quebec after the passing of Bill 78, which was passed following the student strikes in 2012 and prohibits protests on school grounds.

“The best avenues for us to address this is through [QSU] and AVEQ,” Spencer said. “So both of them at their congresses were talking about what specific needs their members want them to bring to the provincial governments to do with the legal rights for students to strike.”

After the question period, Medicine Representative Andre Lametti proposed an amendment to the motion, replacing the call for SSMU to immediately establish monthly democratic assemblies with a call for SSMU to “work towards” establishing monthly democratic assemblies.

“The modalities have not been established yet and this motion taking effect, right now, would mean we would have to start having monthly democratic assemblies, at this present time, which I suppose is what the movers want, but we still have to decide how we are going to do it,” Lametti said.

Following the introduction of this amendment, councillors engaged in heated debate over the accountability and integrity of next year’s SSMU Executive.

“‘Work towards’ has been what has been put in the prior SSMU resolutions for the last 2 years,” Ramakrishnan said. “In those resolutions, there is no concrete action.”

While councillors quickly came to the defence of next year’s SSMU Executive, SSMU VP University Affairs (UA) Isabelle Oke acknowledged students’ general mistrust of SSMU and expressed her support for the inclusion of a firm timeline in the motion, rather than mandating SSMU to take action in an indefinite period of time.

“The issue at hand isn’t necessarily one of questioning the integrity of the [SSMU Executive], but […] it seems like there is little trust in SSMU as an institution,” Oke said. “If we’re being asked to stick to this higher standard, I would speak against the amendment just in terms of taking the small steps [toward increased accountability] that are required to have that relationship with a membership where we can make these changes and they’re taken for what they are.”

Ultimately, the amendment passed with the addition of a line stipulating that the monthly democratic assemblies must take place by Fall 2018. The motion also passed, with 13 in favour, nine opposed, and two abstentions.

 

Council votes to revamp the BoD

Council passed the Motion to Amend the Internal Regulations to Improve Accessibility, Impartiality, and Stability of the Board of Directors. The motion stipulates that the chair of the BoD must be a non-voting member who will not be counted toward the quorum at BoD meetings. It also requires the BoD to include two alumni representatives in an advisory capacity.

SSMU President-Elect and current Engineering Senator Tre Mansdoerfer presented this motion following concerns raised about lack of transparency from this year’s BoD due to meetings being scheduled on Sunday evenings in the SSMU office, when both the University Centre and the Brown Building require keycard access to enter. To address this, one the motion’s amendments specifies that the agenda for all BoD meetings must be made publicly available at least 48 hours in advance.

 

Editorial, Opinion

Behind the picket line: Accessible education requires a concrete action plan

by McGill Tribune Editorial Board on

More in Editorial:

Today’s university graduates are suffocating under record-high student debt. A 2015 survey by the Canadian University Survey Consortium indicates that approximately 50 per cent of graduating students have debt and carry an average of $26,819 in tuition debt. Debt delays or impedes important life milestones, such as buying a home, and can take a significant toll on students’ mental health. Given the adverse impacts of rising student debt, it’s no wonder that the prospect of free education is enticing to current undergrads.

On March 26, SSMU members passed a motion at the Winter General Assembly (GA) mandating the Vice-President (VP) External to organize a campaign for free education across Canada and the cancellation of student debt. Proposed by the Socialist Fightback student group, part of this campaign includes mobilizing a one-day student strike in the Fall 2018 semester. Quebec student unions have a history of successfully pressuring the provincial government on tuition, and this campaign has similar potential to incite real change.

Because the GA didn’t meet quorum, SSMU Legislative Council subsequently accepted the Motion to Organize the Fight for Free Education and Cancellation of Student Debt at its March 29 meeting, after amending it to include a timeline. Looking forward over the next few months, it is crucial that SSMU conducts adequate research to determine how to properly lobby the government for such a revolutionary change, and do the leg-work necessary to see this broad-reaching mandate become an effective student campaign.

The resolution acknowledges SSMU’s historical role in fighting against tuition increases, and references a 2015 policy that commits SSMU to supporting universally accessible post-secondary education. It also acknowledges Quebec’s tradition of student activism, alluding to the infamous 2012 “Maple Spring” protests that mobilized over 250,000 students against the provincial Liberal Party’s proposed tuition hike. In the same spirit, the GA motion voices student frustration over “the lack of accessibility of education” and “skyrocketing tuition fees.” According to Statistics Canada, the average Canadian undergraduate tuition has risen 40 per cent in the past 10 years. It is within this context, and in solidarity with universities across Canada, that SSMU aims to mobilize students for the one-day strike and champion a long-term accessible education campaign.

A one-day strike won’t bring about free university overnight. But, if executed effectively, it could raise awareness on the increasing financial burden of post-secondary education for students, and encourage McGill and the provincial government to reconsider Quebec’s tuition rates.

Notably missing from the campaign, however, is current research and information on viable paths toward more accessible—and potentially free—post-secondary education in Quebec, and how free tuition would impact other important aspects of student life, such as quality of education and enrolment. The lack of a concrete action plan risks hindering the movement’s goals. Free university tuition is certainly attractive, and it’s proven to be feasible—as students in countries such as Norway, Germany, and Finland benefit from it. Still, Quebec and McGill present their own unique challenges.

Closer to home, the 2012 strikes’ success at freezing tuition hikes is a testament to the impact that effective student mobilization can have on the accessibility of education. However, further progress on the pricetag of university education in Quebec will undoubtedly require significant adjustment in the public university funding structure. If SSMU wishes to see its bold vision materialize, it must consider its financial aspects as well. Additionally, to attract the provincial attention necessary to enact substantial change, collaboration with other student unions in the province is essential. In moving forward with its campaign for free education, it is crucial for SSMU and its members to conduct research and strategize about how they would wish to see free tuition implemented. At all stages, students themselves must be continually consulted as stakeholders in the process.

Given the preliminary nature of the motion, as a measure to gauge student support, the lack of research included with it is understandable; however, if students wish to see real impact, concrete plans for change must follow. A one-day strike won’t bring about free university overnight. But, if executed effectively, it could raise awareness on the increasing financial burden of post-secondary education for students, and encourage McGill and the provincial government to reconsider Quebec’s tuition rates.

The VP External must also mobilize McGill students, both on the strike, and on the broader campaign for more financially accessible education that the resolution proposes. Substantial change does not happen from one strike in one semester, or in one year, as even the most prominent student activist groups on campus can attest. For this campaign to have the same longevity and impact as causes like Divest McGill or Demilitarize McGill, it must hit the ground running, and then keep running.

SSMU is right to stand behind accessible education and campaign against student debt. While the strike is set to only last one day, it should generate further conversation about the accessibility of education in Quebec and Canada more broadly. As Quebec students have proven, when it comes to fighting for affordable education, they aren’t quick to back down.

 

A previous version of this editorial incorrectly stated that the Motion to Organize the Fight for Free Education and Cancellation of Student Debt was pending an online student vote. Legislative Council passed an amended version of the resolution on March 29.  The Tribune regrets this error.

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